a question to my female readership

[truepenny]

Exercise and menstrual cramps: Do you or don't you?

I know conventional wisdom is that exercise helps with cramps, but my experience has been rather the opposite. At best, it doesn't make them worse. (At worst, I end up puking my guts out in the girls' bathroom. Although that was in high school, when my cramps were far far worse than they are now, the experience has tended to, um, linger.) And since cramps tend to make me disinclined to move away from my heating pad and fleecy bathrobe, I tend to not want to exercise.

But I'm wondering what other women's experiences have been like.

Comments

[ex-greythist387.livejournal.com]

Brisk walking and such help me if--as you say--I don't overdo things.

Actually, my cramps seem worse if I work at my desk than if I try to get outside. Physical distraction, maybe, not exercise as such? I don't have really dire cramps, though, and when they're bad a nap is nicer than walking. :)

[oursin.livejournal.com]

I think it can be possible that getting a reasonable amount of exercise generally (depending on the kind of exercise: one friend of mine found that regular cycling helped) may help, but I'm not sure that exercise during is necessarily of any benefit whatsoever. Even at school people got a let-off from hockey in the freezing wind if they brought in a note from their mother to say that it was with them after the way of women. Though given that that was in the Upper Paleolithic, ideas may have changed since then and violent exercise is now insisted upon.

[redbird]

A brisk walk during can reduce my cramps, but often the amount of walking necessary to really alleviate them is enough to make my feet hurt.

Otherwise, I'll go to the gym more or less as usual if I'm menstruating but it's time for the gym according to my loose schedule. I don't do crunches if I have--or have recently had--cramps, but the exercise bike and weight lifting are fine.

[porphyrin.livejournal.com]

I'm not in good shape.

That said, *very gentle* exercise (slow walking), after about 10 minutes thereof where I feel like shit, does make me feel better.

There are studies that show that if you keep yourself in good shape, menstrual cramps are supposed to hurt less. You know, what oursin said.

And aside from the endorphin high (the 'I bang my head against the wall because it feels so good when I stop') you get when you're DONE exercising, I see no physiologic reason why it's going to make you feel any better.

[yonmei.livejournal.com]

Back before I discovered the wonder that is ibuprofin (for some bizarre reason, my mum didn't believe in painkillers for period pain, so I was left to find out about them on my own...) I had three methods of dealing with period pain.

1. Go for a long walk. (This really did help, though it may have been that it just distracted me: I have never had very bad cramps, though bad enough that they get very annoying when I'm doing nothing but sit still.)

2. Lie down flat with a hot water bottle (or a sleepy cat) exactly over my uterus.

3. Take a hot bath.

All three worked, but ibuprofin is much more compatible with an office job.

So, my experience is that mild, prolonged exercise is good for cramps.

[par-avion.livejournal.com]

I don't find exercise *during* helpful, but exercising in general, maybe.

The thing that helps my cramps, besides drugs like Alleve, is Calicum. Any form: a glass of milk, a few Tums. There have been studies about this, it has to do with the smooth muscle contractions. It really helps. It doesn't help with mood swings or water retention, but cramps? Definitely.

[lisajulie.livejournal.com]

If my cramps are mild, then mild exercise (like walking) can help. If the cramps are more intense, then exercise doesn't seem to have much of an impact. And when the cramps are so extreme that every smooth muscle south of my diaphragm is on the hop, the concept of exercise doesn't enter the arena.

Exercise on a regular basis _seems_ to mitigate the extreme cramping. But then so does the regular consumption of soy products.

[skylarker.livejournal.com]

I've found some *gentle* exercise can help, like belly-dance movements. Also ibuprofen.

[wilhelmina-d.livejournal.com]

If I can get past the discomfort of the first 5 - 10 minutes, yeah exercise helps. Believe it or not, I like to do my belly dance exercises that massage the muscles that are cramping. Mostly that involves abdominal flutters (contracting and releasing the muscles of the abdomen). The lower abs help more than the upper abs.

[wilhelmina-d.livejournal.com]

Oh, and hip circles - both the kind where you're standing upright and just moving your hips and the kind wher you bend over in the opposite direction of your hips (i.e. lean to the right and thrust your hip to the left).

[stillsostrange.livejournal.com]

I can only say, long live the pill. Since I started it, the nasty hideous cramps are all gone. The water retention alone is enough to make me not want to move or be seen by mankind.

[ericaceous.livejournal.com]

I find that maintaining a schedule of exercise during the REST of my cycle helps with cramps DURING that part of it. I am usually aenemic and crampy and nauseated during my period, and I do try to keep up with my walking, but it doesn't help cramps as far as I can see.

REgular doses of ibuprofen, making sure to not overload on caffeine, and hot baths are the things I find most helpful during.

[papersky.livejournal.com]

Certain sorts of exercise help me, others make it worse. Walking helps, whether I feel like it or not. Swinging (on a swing) helps. Running, as I remember from when I used to be able to run, doesn't help, and anything that required twisting and school gym-type stuff really doesn't help. Swimming breast-stroke helps, swimming energetically doesn't help, doing water-exercises suitable for my hip can be really bad.

Swinging on a swing, one of the few types of exercise that I can actually enjoy and actually do with the restrictions I have, appears to be entirely unknown for adults these days, outside of physiotherapy. Public playgrounds that have swings large enough for adults -- well, large enough for you and me anyway -- tend to have little signs saying they're forbidden to people over the age of fourteen. I'm sure what they actually want to prevent is teenage vandals, not middle-aged swingers, but sometimes it seems as if there's a conspiracy to prevent adults from being able to do anything that doesn't cost money. It really helps for cramps though. When I lived in Lancaster I could often be found swinging away late at night at the full of the moon...

[reannon.livejournal.com]

Sorry I can't help - I've never gotten cramps. There must be something wrong with me. :)

[loligo.livejournal.com]

Not that you really need another voice added to the emerging consensus, but here goes: (1) mild stretching of various abdominal muscles helps me a bit, though I prefer to do it seated or lying down; (2) but this is as nothing compared to the relief from sweet, sweet ibuprofen. You can take up to double the OTC dose for a couple days without problems. (3) I didn't want to believe it, but eliminating caffeine during the week before does cut down on both PMS and cramps, for me.

[kijjohnson.livejournal.com]

Long slow walks and Thermacare patches. Real exercise is too much to face.

[matociquala.livejournal.com]

I am going to use this phrase: with them after the way of women with unholy glee, for the rest of my life.

Thank you.

[matociquala.livejournal.com]

I've been in every sort of shape from "middle-distance competition runner" to "abject couch potato" since I started menstruating.

The only thing that has *ever* helped my cramps is the pill, and I have run, walked, hiked, swum, and gone roller-skating while menstrual.

Fucking uterus. It's not like I have a use for the goddamned thing. I don't suppose anybody else wants mine? O-positive, never used.

[buymeaclue.livejournal.com]

Caveat: I don't get very bad cramps any more. I used to. Oh, I used to. But the last two years or so, they've been fairly mild and brief (and ibuprofen is a wonderous thing).

Horseback riding actually seems to help, though, in the sense of "help" that means "make them go away." I'm not sure if it's the exercise itself or the particular way of moving and holding the body (or even just that it requires my full attention). Certain stretches help, too. Don't remember if running did.

[torrilin.livejournal.com]

If you get the "I will vomit if I don't take something for the pain" kind of cramps, basically all that helps is painkillers (I'm of the 800 mg ibuprofen every 4 hours with a solid food buffer school). If I don't have it and I try to tough the pain out (ha!) I end up vomiting. Sufficient excersise to uncramp is also enough to walk your feet off or cause potentially serious athletic injuries.

This is the kind of myth doctors like because they think noone gets enough excersize, and being in good physical shape at least won't *hurt* you.

[annafdd.livejournal.com]

Excercise is good for a lot of things but when I get cramps it's a good thing if I don't throw up all over myself and/or thrash about howling. Ibuprofen doesn't work on me, so I'm lucky that here in Italy we have nimesulide allowed, which is the only thing that helps me. I am never caught without it. Once I've had my dose, I usually burrow under abundant woolen layers and sleep it off.

[janni.livejournal.com]

I find exercise during has no effect, for good or ill.

Exercise before, however--as in consistently throughout the month before--has amazing effects for me. As in, that time of the month can completely sneak up on me if I'm not keeping track, I have no PMS at all save for maybe some mild mood stuff, and the cramps during wind up being milder, too.

[jenett]

For me, it depends on the kind of cramps:

Relatively minor ones, where my body is griping, but it's not painful or all the time, and I'm still generally pretty functional, exercise helps.

Though gentle exercise: walking or gentle dancing or something. I used to be fine with horseback riding. Stuff that allows the pelvis to move in ways beyond stiff 'ow, I hurt' walking seems particularly helpful: stretching helps too.

If I'm at the point where moving is painful, or my entire body is in rebellion, then attempts at exercise don't work, and make me feel worse, even if I can motivate myself enough to try.

(These days, the voice of experience has taught me not to bother, and just spend time curled up until I feel better or the nice ibuprofen kicks in sufficiently. And take lots of hot baths.)

Mostly, I sing the praises of the Pill for helpign with this particular problem: I used to get debiltating "Go to bed, do nothing else for at least 12 hours" cramps about one cycle in two or three. I haven't had one of those in years, and at their most painful in that time, I've still generally been able to function, even if not very energetically.

[oracne.livejournal.com]

I rarely exercise anyway, beyond walking--but I sometimes walk with mild cramps, and it's at least distracting.

The worst cramps tend to be in the middle of the night, so it's not so much of an issue.

[naomichana.livejournal.com]

Exercise during cramps has never done anything for me, although sometimes I do find it helps to move around (walk) instead of staying seated for long periods. Endorphin rushes are also nice, but frankly I prefer orgasms to heavy exercise for getting them, especially during cramps. Finally, having one's stomach and lower back massaged, or doing it oneself (for the stomach, at least), can be very pleasant during periods of light cramping, and a few stretches I do may have that effect. So do certain sexual positions.

In conclusion, I vote for ibuprofen/naproxen and sex whenever possible -- but the feedback on this thread is making me suspect that my cramps are generally pretty mild.

[libskrat]

Try eBay. Why don't we list mine, too -- wouldn't a lot of two sell better?

[oursin.livejournal.com]

This is from that Old Testament story in which a woman elopes with somebody (is this wotsername at the well? Rebecca? and Isaac?), including some valuable thing formerly in her father's possession, and when they are pursued, and the camp searched, sits on top of the whatever, telling the searchers that it is with her after the way of women - whereupon they fall over each other trying to get out of the tent before all those menstrual bad vibes do their worst.

[rachelmanija.livejournal.com]

I haven't been bothered by cramps and general menstrual discomfort anywhere near as much as I used to before I started karate. So for me, exercise helped a lot. However, I mean that exercising regularly helped my menstrual misery in general. I'm not sure than exercising while actively cramping is helpful, although as I said it's less of an issue now than it used to be.

[peacockharpy.livejournal.com]

I had debilitating cramps -- as in, the kind where I nearly passed out while making my slow way home from class one day. Exercise didn't do a thing for them. (I remember quite vividly the time I did WalkAmerica, came home, was attacked by vicious soul-sucking cramps and realized "oh, my period came... lovely.") Back in those days, I swore by the hot pad, the hot shower (if I could stay upright) and sleep. Eventually, my doctor prescribed 800mg horse pills of ibuprofen. Bliss!

Now that I am older and the cramps are no longer as debilitating, I find that the ibuprofen is still my remedy of choice (in smaller doses these days). I've also found (as reported by others above) that gentle bellydance moves -- for me it's the figure-eights -- can relieve the pain, but don't really remove it.

I remember being told that once I had children, cramps would go away. Since my daughter was born, the cramps haven't completely gone away (every few months, I have them) but they are much reduced in duration and power. Not that I'm recommending having a child to reduce menstrual cramps. Just observing.

[thepouncer.livejournal.com]

I'll ride my exercise bike per usual during my period, unless I feel too much soul-sucking fatigue. Doing gentle stretches sometimes seems to help - the kind where you support your lower back with your hands and arch backward. If I'm too exhausted, I languish on my bed with a heating pad on my stomach, watching comforting TV, eating dark chocolate, and attempting to lure my dog close for snuggling purposes. The things that work well for me in reducing cramps are:

1. Naproxen, sold over-the-counter as Aleve in 220 mg pills. Prescription strength is 500 mgs, and I had a doctor tell me I could take it four times a day one day a month instead of the usual twice a day. I always indulge on the worst day.

2. Evening primrose oil capsules seem to help with both cramps and PMS crankiness.

3. Thermacare heat patches - warmth I can wear while I'm working. A quantum improvement over all other methods.

4. The heating pad, while at home.

5. Alcohol, mostly used when none of the other remedies are available. A few shots of vodka in orange juice, and I'm feeling no pain.

[pameladean]

Having had debilitating cramps without nausea for most of my life and a not-short-enough bout of debilitating cramps with nausea during perimenopause, I cannot say emphatically enough that exercise with the latter type is a really bad idea. Being in good shape already, yes. Ginger tea, in my case, helped both cramps and nausea, but it does increase blood flow, so you can end up a bit like a donkey between two bales of really moldy hay.

I second the recommendation of calcium, with Vitamin D, all month, not just during the period of acute suffering.

Intelligent design, my ass.

P.

[magentamn.livejournal.com]

Don't let them talk you into HRT if you've had bad reactions to other hormone therapy. Recent studies have refuted the idea that HRT is somehow good for you. Too many doctors treat menopause like it's a disease. Since it's an *absence* of hormones, you may actually feel better.

BTW, I think it's against the rules to sell human organs on e-Bay.

(Don't let them remove it surgically because you have no further need of it - my mother was persuaded to and it was a Very Bad Thing.)

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

Do they really? When we get annexed by Canada, we'll have to lobby to change that, because none of ours have signs like that.

(We=Minnesotans)

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

Debilitating cramps, sometimes nausea, often dizziness, sometimes menstrual migraines, sore boobs, heavy clotty flow, general malaise. (And did I mention that the cramps have started a week early this month? "I enjoooooy being a girrrrrrlll....")

I do yoga and take walks or ride the recumbent bike we got for timprov, and I find that when I exercise during my period, I get heavier, faster blood flow. For those of us who are anemic and tend to dizziness, this is a very very bad thing. Also I don't feel any better during or after. Mostly I do it anyway and then lie on the couch and drink water out of a bottle like a hamster. Sometimes not.

Sometimes cardiovascular health is going to have to be its own damned reward.

[sciamanna.livejournal.com]

I second the suggestion for ibuprofen and specific stretches. Can't say that I have noticed the effects of generalized exercise. There is one stretch that helps me when I have cramps, and that's the Cobra posture from yoga. It stretches just the right places. There's a picture with explanation here (http://www.santosha.com/asanas/naga.html); what it doesn't mention is that the knees are not together but slightly apart (look at the way the model's feet are turned inwards) -- this is an important detail for getting the stretch right. The explanation is otherwise fairly clear, but as usual with yoga, if you have someone who knows yoga and can show you, that would be best. (Oh, and I don't hold my breath: instead, I hold the pose for a few minutes. It's delightful :-))

[renenet.livejournal.com]

Rachel and Jacob (Isaac's son). Genesis 31:35. King James has it "for the custom of women is upon me." I like yours better. The Good News Bible ("the Bible in today's English," my gift with purchase for having attended third grade Sunday school) strips out the subtlety that might be lost on a nine-year-old, and leaves us with "I am having my monthly period." I keep reading that out loud and laughing.

Not eloping, by the way. They were already married and they were just taking off to get away from her asshole father. Rachel stole her father's household gods and hid them in the camel furniture or something. Like you do.

[elisem.livejournal.com]

I had awful cramps, of the type that once landed me in the student health service at college, where they gave me vast wads of codeine pills. They also put me on a study for a drug that turned out to be ibuprofen, but I am the part of the list of side effects where they mention very bad headaches and/or migraines, so that wasn't much of an option for me. The codeine helped some, but was icky for other reasons. Hot baths were a must. Leaving school or work and going home was also a must, mostly because I couldn't stand up with cramps like that, and the involuntary noise level was distracting to others.

The worst of it was the first twelve hours, when I was pretty much useless for anything and just trying to endure, because I couldn't do much else than live moment-to-moment. (Those of you who know what kind of high pain levels I am used to will know that that was some significant ouch there. Those who don't, well, the short form is that I lived with an untreated damaged hip since age five. But then, I thought everybody hurt that much, but they handled it better and I was just a wuss.) Later, when I had the wonderful hysterectomy and salpingo-oophorectomy, it turned out I had multiple fibroid tumors, multiple ovarian cysts, and endometriosus. I was glad to be rid of all that.

Actually, if I could manage it, the one thing that did help the cramps was an orgasm. Fortunately, I guess, I was pretty good at reaching that goal, even when the pain was very bad. If I could manage that, sometimes I could fall asleep for a few hours, and miss some of the worst of it that way, too.

I must offer a contrary data point about avoiding HRT if one has had bad reactions to other hormone therapy. I would never take progesterone again, given what one month of being on it did to me when they were trying to shrink the fibroids without surgery, but I am extremely pleased with the results of taking estrogen at this point. My life is so much better than before the hysterectomy and the hormones. Specific references available on request, but let's just say way, way, WAY better.

Surgery and conventional hormone treatments aren't for everybody, but they have brought me more physical comfort, enjoyment, and ability than I ever had before. Just a data point.

[elisem.livejournal.com]

Er, so the short answer would be "exercise, yes, but only the sort that results in a specific set of friendly endorphins and muscle state changes." Other than that, no fuckin' way, Jose. Just getting home was exercise enough.

[flit.livejournal.com]

I've been everywhere from in moderately good shape to invalid, with my periods ranging from 'not too bad' in the moderately good stage to 'bloody horrible' in the invalid state. I trained to do a 62 mile bike ride (100km), and my training went swimmingly throughout. On the day of I found out ("surprise") that my period had started. This was ten miles in, and I'd been *wondering* why I was punking out and my legs were cramping, which they'd never done before on any ride, including ones far colder.

The exercise moved the cramps from their usual location into my calves. Because I'm a big believer in mind over matter, I wasn't going to let a silly period get in the way. I actually had a pad in my kit (be prepared is my motto) so I continued on my merry way.

So by mile fifteen I was in pretty real pain, but I am very stubborn, so I actually continued to, ummm... mile 55 I think.

Around mile 35 or so it hurt just as much to not be pedaling as to pedal, so I pedalled constantly because the sharp pain when I switched to a coast and then from that back to pedalling just wasn't worth it at all. I've never been so grateful for headwinds and hills! They meant I didn't have to coast!

At some point in here I told my partners to go on ahead, because I was drastically slowing them down, and a few miles later I was in such constant and impressively strong pain (it felt like my muscles wanted to detach themselves from my legs to get away from the punishment) that I knew I wasn't going to make it, so I had to be driven to the end. It REALLY bugged me that I didn't make the last few miles after I had put myself through all that. At that point I could barely walk, though I could still walk slowly if I had to, and I stiffened up even more and couldn't walk at all for several days afterwards.

My calves got crampy too easily for months after that, and a time or two after I decided to "get back on the horse" I also got my period, and they came back and homed in on my legs like they'd missed them terribly; it was like the earlier cramps had set up a pattern for these cramps to return with slight provocation. I did finish the ride but I backed off after that because it was really unpleasant.

So as far as exercising during a period goes, I wouldn't do it again! I was in training for that ride, but it was on the edge of my capabilities. I probably could have done a 20 mile ride with no ill effects, because I was in good training, but the 60 mile attempt was really bad and proved to be too much for me. I think as long as the exercise is whatever my current definition of "mild" is, it's fine, but anything more than that and my body just hates it.

Even now, if I overexert during my period, my calves hurt, though otherwise they seem to be "over" it; they don't bother me like that at any other time.

On the other hand, I've known women who feel better from vigorous exercise, so I know it does work for some. Just not me. I say if it's not making them better, don't push it.